Circolo Vegetariano VV.TT. Calcata

Concurrently with catholic pope Ratzinger’s visit to England during the first half of September this year, Sephen William Hawking’s book, the british physicist who is defined “the genius of the second millennium” will be presented to the public.

The conclusions gathered by the quantum physicist go in the direction of a substantial denial to the theories on creation.

“Following the Big Bang, the force of gravity and the same nature of the quantum particles, the universal matter that we have knowledge of generated itself… from empty space, without any need of a divine intervention”. It’s like saying that God doesn’t exist and that matter and life are the result of a natural process. This hypothesis of the All that generates All follows Albert Einstein’s theory of Relativity of Space – Time, which also supports anti-creationism.

The theories of the British researcher are very much in tune with my intuition of “lay or atheist spirituality” which I expressed at length in more than one occasion. Therefore the scientific confirmation given by Hawking regarding the non existence of a Creator (as we usually define God) finds me perfectly in tune.

Truth is that the denial of creation as the work of art of a personal God, is far more ancient than the English physicist’s “scientific discoveries” or my “lay spirituality intuitions.”

It actually dates back to thousands of years before our era. The concept was already present in the “Non-dual” philosophy in India and in the Chinese Taoism, and was mentioned also in the Buddhist Theory of “Empty Space” or Void  (Sunya).

And what do these philosophies say?

The manifestation appears in the Absolute through a spontaneous movement or “Power” (Shakti) which is intrinsic in it. The Absolute does not create, It simply is. It has no will or desire.

All that exists is in the Advaita (Non-dualism) a natural expression of Energy that belongs to “Being”, there is no deliberate completion or goal in the manifestation. From the “empirical “ point of view the explanation given to the “creative” event is that of energetic movement, a “gradient” which forms itself after appearing in the reflecting mirror of the cosmic mind on the concept of space and time. A kind of conditioning or capability of the mind to project itself in that “continuum” through forming an unceasing variety of “photograms”, defined as “moments” and “places”. It could be said that this “continuum” corresponds, ab initium, to the so called Big Bang. And actually, space and time simultaneously come from that hypothetical initial expansion.

Furthermore, to affirm that manifestation began at a certain time and that it portrays itself in space is a concession made through the experience of “beings” that move in space/time. Actually those “beings” are as conceptual and relative as the existence of the passing of time and of the expanding of space. Empty Space, or Absolute, always prevail, all contain and all transcend.

In Taoism space is called “Yin” and time is called “Yang”. The meeting or the friction between these two forces in the Tao (Absolute), produce all visible effects (in other words, the birth of all the so called “ten thousand creatures”) There is no intent in the Tao, the completion of the manifestation is the result of a spontaneous alternation or changes of the Yin and Yang energies along an infinite spiral.

In Buddhism, the only concession given to the existence of a “God” is in the form of a compensation power in the law of cause and effect. He is thus described as a dispensator of karmic retribution. But He never assumes a specific form like in the Christian and Muslim religions or others which adore a “Personal God”.

From where then does the idea of a God “creator and lord of heaven and earth” in the monotheistic and polytheistic faiths come from? It is evident that such thoughts were structured in the individual mind of man as an attempt to give an answer and a sense to his identification with the form and with his considering the manifestation of events that he observed in time and space “true and real”.

Therefore the existence of a “superior entity” that “controls” the activities of the universe is presumed. This belief is both a consolation to one’s own hypothetic inferiority compared to being present in this world and a functional and notional thought towards the illusion of being separate. In reality the Universe is not divisible, it’s like each particle in a hologram contains the Whole completely. This is true also in a logical sense because the Whole can never be divided, even though it apparently manifests itself with all its differences.

It is also true that when we consider ourselves apart and separate from the Whole, we cannot help affirming so through our consciousness which is the root of our senses and the only proof of our existence. This conscience is common to all living forms and is simply part of nature itself. In latency in so called inorganic matter and in evidence in organic forms, which are a biochemical transformation of matter.

And it is in this “conscience” – better defined as “awareness” – that manifestation takes place and becomes a sensorial experience. And this conscience, because it’s a natural expression of the Absolute, is unique and indivisible, it represents the true reality of every being: May it be a hypothetical God or an amoeba, a germ or a stone… and this can be demonstrated by quantum physics.

I wish therefore success to the researcher Stephen William Hawking in unhinging at least the “crude” ignorance on the true nature of Being and Existing.

Paolo D’Arpini

 http://www.circolovegetarianocalcata.it/?s=lay+spirituality

(Traduzione di Ilaria Gaddini)